I'm in Love with Your Car
by HoldoutTrout
Summary: Regina's in town for a conference and needs a ride. Emma drives for Uber as a second job. The Romantic Cab (well, Uber) Driver AU no one knew they needed. Swan Queen meet-cute.


There were no cabs. None. Regina Mills stood just under the awning of her hotel, wishing that she had thought to call ahead and arrange something. Instead, she'd just assumed-but, well, that clearly wasn't going to get her anywhere now. It was a good thing she'd left herself extra time to make it to her meeting across town.

Reluctantly, she clicked on the nondescript little app Kathryn had installed for her the other day. "Uber," she muttered. "Stupid name." But the app was easy to use and in minutes she'd gotten confirmation that 'Emma' was on her way in a yellow Toyota Prius. Well, it was hard to tell from the tiny picture, but at least Emma didn't look like a serial killer. Regina squinted at the screen. Mostly, Emma just looked blonde.

Sure enough, in less than four minutes, the car pulled up in front of the awning and the window rolled down. From inside the car, Emma waved. "You Regina?"

Regina nodded and approached the car.

Emma grinned. "You can sit up front if you like. More leg room."

Regina climbed in, still not totally sure about this whole thing. Inside, though, she started to feel better. Emma's car was clean, and Emma herself was more than decent-looking. Attractive, even, with long, light hair pulled back into a ponytail that curled at the end. She was wearing jeans and a red leather jacket that had clearly seen better days.

Emma rolled up the window. "The Marriott, right?" she said. "There's a little bit of traffic tonight, so it'll probably take about twenty, twenty-five minutes."

"Fine," Regina said.

Emma glanced at her before turning on her blinker and edging out smoothly into traffic. "First time riding?"

"Is it that obvious?" Regina said.

Emma shrugged. "Yeah. I'm not going to steal your purse, by the way."

Regina looked down at her lap where she had her purse clenched tightly in her hands. "No offense, but I'm not sure about that, yet."

Emma laughed. "Fair enough. I've been doing this for a while, though-and I'm pretty sure my other fares wouldn't give me good reviews if I was stealing from all of them."

Regina was starting to relax a little, despite herself. Emma wasn't a half-bad driver; she'd had more fraught cab rides. She gave Emma another look. She was about her age, with an easy confidence to her and a body that certainly didn't look like she drove strangers around all day. "How long have you been doing this?" she asked.

"Three years. I actually have another job, too, but this one is more reliable. Had to get a different car, though; I used to have a Bug, but it wasn't big enough. I wouldn't have wanted to subject anyone else to it, either. Not the best first impression, you know?"

"Was it obscenely yellow, too?" Regina asked.

"Hey!" Emma said, but she was smiling. "Yeah, actually. I kinda like that this one looks more like a cab. Makes it easier for people waiting."

"Yes," Regina said. "It was nice not to have to guess which black sedan was yours."

"See?" Emma said. "Plus, yellow is a happy color."

Regina huffed out a breath of laughter.

"Oh, that's good," Emma said. "You're definitely relaxing. A few more blocks and you won't even notice when I start driving you to my abandoned warehouse instead of your hotel."

It was a dumb joke, but Regina found herself smiling anyway. "If you wanted to kidnap people, I'd suggest a different color for your car."

"True," Emma said. "Yellow is a little memorable."

"I suppose being kidnapped would be more exciting than the conference I'm going to." There was a reason she'd chosen to stay at a hotel across town; it meant she could keep the small talk and networking to an absolute minimum.

Emma made a sympathetic noise. "Best part of what I do: no conferences."

Regina sighed. "If only."

They were silent for a few minutes. It was almost comfortable, actually. Emma either didn't listen to the radio or she'd turned it off, and it was sort of novel, being in a car without the background noise from music or ads.

"What's your other job?" Regina asked, surprising herself. She wasn't usually the person who felt the need to talk with drivers.

"Um… I'm a bail bondsperson," Emma said, sneaking a look at her to see her reaction.

"Really?" Regina said. Her idea of "bail bondsperson" was a large, rough-looking man with a lot of tattoos. Emma might have tattoos, but she couldn't see any… and Emma definitely wasn't rough-looking.

Emma shrugged. "I sort of fell into it and had a knack for finding people. Not very steady work, though: feast or famine. Hence the car."

"I guess that's pretty active work, right?"

Emma gave her another look, this one a little confused. "Sometimes, I guess? How come?"

Regina raised her eyebrows and said, "You're very… fit."

Emma's eyebrows shot up before she grinned. "Are you hitting on me?"

"What? No!"

"Because I'm flattered, but I don't give out my number on the job."

It was clear Emma was teasing her and not offended. Even so, Regina's cheeks were burning, but she didn't try to protest, knowing she'd just dig herself in deeper.

Emma shook her head. "The physical parts of the job are pretty minimal, most of the time. But yeah, I keep… _fit_ -" she shot Regina a quick smirk, "-partly because of that, and partly because if I didn't, the downtime when I'm waiting in cars for people would kill me."

She glanced over again, which Regina supposed was okay given they were at a red light, only she was definitely… _looking_. Regina felt that look all the way down to her toes.

"What about you? What do you do to stay… fit?" Emma asked, and that was definitely flirting, now, and if it had come from any other driver, she would have reported them. Somehow with Emma it didn't seem totally inappropriate.

Instead, her mouth went dry. She cleared her throat as unobtrusively as she could manage and said, "I work with businesses to capitalize on market research." She paused, and then added, "And I do Pilates."

"Pilates," Emma said, slowly, as if delighting in the syllables on her tongue. "I've done that, a little. I like yoga better, though-although mostly I run and lift."

Regina couldn't believe she was going to say this, but, "Whatever you're doing, it's working."

Emma laughed, a full, good-natured sound that had Regina smiling, too. She found herself wondering if Emma was serious about not giving her number out to fares. She looked out the window and thought better of it. She was only here for a couple of days, and they were almost to the conference hotel. It was better not to start something. Right?

Logically, that made sense. Still, as they got closer to the hotel, Regina opened her purse, tore off a piece of paper from an envelope she'd stuffed in there, rummaged around for a pen, and wrote her number on the paper, as clearly as she could with shaking hands. She finished just as Emma pulled up in front of the doors.

"Here you are," Emma said, brightly.

"Thank you," Regina replied, handing Emma the paper.

Emma didn't look at the paper at first. "Oh, it's cashless, I can't-"

"No, I-look, you said you didn't give your number out. But if you want to call…"

Emma stared at the paper, not reacting in any way whatsoever.

This had to be in the top ten awkward moments of Regina's life. She closed her eyes. "I'm only in town for a couple of days, anyway, so… it was just a thought," she said, and she opened the door, got out, swung the door shut and was inside the hotel in about thirty seconds flat. She moved to the side and leaned her back against the wall. Humiliating. She'd clearly misread the whole situation. Emma had obviously not been flirting with her after all, and she'd just made a fool of herself.

Her phone beeped from inside her purse.

Regina took a deep breath and pulled out her phone, expecting that it was a calendar reminder for her meeting. Instead, her lock screen displayed a text from an unknown number.

 _I thought you were way too hot to be serious. Would you like to get drinks with me tonight? 8pm?_

Regina's breath left her lungs with an audible whoosh. She smiled as she typed back, _I would like that. I'll meet you out front_

Ten seconds, and then another beep.

 _I drive a yellow Prius ;-)_


End file.
